The scent of barbecued oysters wafts on a light breeze coming off Lake Merritt on a Sunday afternoon in Oakland.

There are so many shade tents, chairs, grills and bicycles covering the eastern shore that at first glance it appears hundreds have gathered for some sort of festival.

"No, this is just beautiful Oakland," said Alan Bailey, a club DJ at Vinyl Oakland, who brings his mixer to the lawn to entertain the crowds with impromptu beats.

No one knows exactly who started it, but since spring, Oaklanders have been showing up Sunday afternoons for a pop-up picnic that is quickly becoming known as the Dolores Park of the East Bay, drawing families, boaters, runners and musicians in a gathering of Oakland pride that locals say they haven't seen in a long time.

"I remember my dad used to try to bring us kids to the lake to do this in the '90s and we got shooed away by the police," James Victor said as he grilled chicken, ribs and burgers near Lakeshore and Cleveland Avenues. Since he discovered the gathering a month ago, he's been making it a Sunday ritual to cook a big lakeside feast for his extended family.

When Victor was growing up, Lake Merritt was not a place to bring a family to relax. It was popular with car cruisers, who sometimes would block off the eastern stretch with their cars and drag race. The lake was largely neglected as a leisure place, encircled by a stark concrete sidewalk and little in the way of greenery. It had fallen far from its moniker in the '30s and '40s as the "gem of Oakland."

Successful improvements

Now, on the heels of a publicly financed $198 million makeover supported by a clean-water bond passed in 2002, there are lush greenways, swaths of flowers, a widened walkway with benches and public telescopes to get a closer look at the scullers, kayakers, boats and birds gliding on the water.

As part of the decadelong overhaul, Lake Merritt saw most of its structures renovated, including two boathouses, Children's Fairyland, the 18th Street pier and the pergola. The most notable change was the 12th Street over-crossing, which went from a busy 12-lane boulevard to a much slower six-lane street, with added pedestrian bridges, a tidal marsh, an amphitheater and a 4-acre park.

The renovations have lured multigenerational, multiracial crowds that have drawn comparisons to Brooklyn, as an influx of families and artists priced out of San Francisco join with longtime Oaklanders to contribute to a newfound city pride.

Men picnic in straw fedoras, couples dance, and painters and booksellers set up their wares for sale. Picnic sharing with new neighbors is common. One Sunday, a delivery truck parked and rolled up its back door to reveal a bank of video games as children jostled for seats in the roving game parlor.

"This is a wonderful, positive thing that brings all of us together where we can feel safe and happy to be in our own neighborhood," said Ashley Bonner, who helped her daughter operate a lemonade stand under the shade of an oak tree.

"I imagine this was what Oakland looked like in my grandparents' time," she said.

'Really taken off'

Some trace the pop-up picnic's roots to Ray Nickson, who set up a tent along the lake over a year ago and offered free bike repair and customization under the name of his men's bicycling group, Phixed Bikes.

As people began to drop by, he organized bike laps around the lake, and now up to 50 people gather at his station every third Sunday. Phixed Bikes is open to anyone who wants to join, and members set up multiple Weber grills and share food and drinks with members and passersby alike.

"There weren't many other people here at first, but it's really taken off this year, starting around April," Nickson said.

Phixed Bikes members bring games for kids, old classics such as Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Twister and Life.

"We're trying to get kids off their tablets and out exercising, moving around," Nickson said.

Sarah Elliott and Alex Wickersham of Alameda brought their 4-month-old daughter, Lola, to picnic by the lake. Although they recently moved from Oakland to Alameda, they find themselves returning Sunday afternoons.

"This is the only place where she doesn't fall asleep when we push her in the stroller," Wickersham said. "Her head swivels right and left trying to look at all the people."

Friends Aniyah and Ijonae, both 7, were doing a brisk sale at their lemonade stand, hoping they'd earn enough to buy roller skates.

"The lake is a place where we can chill and sell stuff," said Aniyah.

Lake a destination

Agreed, said Tara's Organic Ice Cream employee Tom Howard, who pedaled his customized bike with a front-mounted ice cream freezer from Oakland's Temescal neighborhood 4 miles away to the lake, where health-conscious picnickers are eager to buy flavors such as jasmine green tea, rose, allspice and lemon verbena.

"This is ideal," he said. "There's a bike path, shade, a cool breeze and people who couldn't bring ice cream in their picnic baskets."

Oakland is changing, Wickersham said.

"Growing up, everyone used to say that Oakland was dangerous," he said. "When I moved here, I didn't even know it had a lake. Now that lake is the place everyone wants to be."